Drug Town Miracle has World-Wide Effect

Drug Town Miracle has World-Wide Effect
By Wendy Griffith
CBN News

CBNNews.com - MANCHESTER, Kentucky - Last fall, we brought you the amazing story of a Kentucky drug town that was transformed by the power of God. Little did anybody know the huge impact this story would have on cities and towns all over the world.

It was the march seen around the world. In May, 2004, nearly 4,000 people came out to march against drugs in the small town of Manchester, Kentucky.

The pastors repented before God and their communities for allowing the darkness to settle in. The drug dealers were put on notice: "get saved or get busted."

They'd had enough. Over the next 12 months, they saw dramatic changes in their town -- drug arrests went way up, drug dealers and users started coming to church and getting free from their addictions, and the story of Manchester was seen around the world on the 700 Club.

Pastor Doug Abner of Community Church said, "About two hours after the story of Manchester aired the first time live, we started getting telephone calls."

Pastor Abner keeps track of all the states that have contacted him - 33 so far - and hundreds of towns.

"Not only did we hear from people in the U.S., but we got e-mails from New Zealand, France, Wales, England, and British Columbia.just mind-boggling," said Abner.

Nearly every request was the same: "Help us do in our town what you did in Manchester."

Pastor Mike England of Tri-State Christian Center in Blue Ridge, Georgia, said, "We were blown away, because we knew we had a serious, serious methamphetamine problem. We have other drugs too, but meth is just overwhelming. We had no idea how to battle it - or deal with it. We saw that video and we got hope that somebody might have an answer about how to attack it!"
Pastor England showed the 700 Club story to his church.

"I didn't even preach because the floor of the church was just littered with people weeping and weeping after seeing that video, and I wasn't going to touch that because that's a holy thing." After that - my wife decided we needed to come here and see for ourselves," England explained.
And that's just what they did. After a surprise visit to Manchester, Pastor England and his wife just showed up on Pastor Abner's doorstep.

Then the Englands headed back to Georgia, where they helped organize the first-ever march against meth. In August, some 3,000 residents of Fannin County, Georgia took to the streets.
The local news covered the event.

In Longview, Texas - a similar story of desperation. Shannon Smallwood's family was almost ready to give up, after struggling for years with a family member hooked on crack cocaine.

Smallwood said, "I just flipped on the TV and the 700 Club was on, and I saw this community marching, concerning drug abuse in their city. And what God did in that city was just amazing and miraculous, and pretty much I said, 'God, would You do that in our city?'

Shannon's prayer was answered. In May, hundreds of residents in Longview, Texas donned red-T-shirts in what they called "The Big March."

Their theme: "The Battle is the Lord's - taken from 2nd Chronicles, Chapter 20.

Participant Roger Carr said, "Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the battle is not yours, but God's - tomorrow, march down against them."

And in Oceana, West Virginia, sometimes referred to as "Oxy-ana" because of the drug problem associated with the pain killer Oxycontin, two marches were held after hearing about what God did in Manchester.

"We had over 550 people march and it was awesome," said Debbie Davis. "The Word tells me that God is no respecter of persons -- if He can do that in Manchester, Kentucky, than He can do that in Oceana, West Virginia."

Nobody could have imagined that so many towns, so many lives, would be inspired - even changed by a single story. And, that a town -- once hopeless when it came to its drug problem --could give hope to so many who need it.

"What I saw on TV that day gave me hope," Texas march organizer Smallwood said.

Amanda Tornberg, a former drug user, said, "I believed that I would never be anything more than the hopeless junkie that I had been for so long, but God spoke to me and He said, 'You know what, when you were still in your sins, Christ died for you.'"

"You cannot underestimate the value of hope in the community," said England. "Churches are letting down the walls and seriously starting to work together…The government agencies and the churches are working together for the first time ever -- that's never happened."

Not only that, but England says that since the march, they are receiving 10 times the number of calls to the county's drug-tip hotline. A good indicator, he says, of things to come.

And in Manchester, two 1/2 years after the march -- the area once known as the pain killer capitol of the nation is now seeing a dramatic dip in the number of pain killers prescribed by doctors -- and there's more.

Pastor Abner said, "We've been told by drug dealers who've now been set free by Jesus, that if they were still dealing drugs they wouldn't even stop in our town and buy gas because the climate has changed so much."

And Abner says that he's grateful for how God used the 700 Club to share their story.

"The 700 Club totally changed our lives," Abner said, "in that, every day, we get to do things in the Kingdom because people saw that. And every time it's been re-run, we get telephone calls. We've got a couple of dvd's now; we always send the story of Manchester out. And we follow that up with calls and we pray for them and the communities on Sat. morning. I really believe what's going to happen is that eventually the fire is going to move across our nation, and we're going to have a tremendous revival in America again."

England said, "When we saw that video, we saw a community where the church was actually making an impact. And after visiting here, I am convinced now - this is reproducible in any community in America. And this may be the key for the church really impacting America nation-wide."

The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc. © 2006